Darwin bird 'centrepiece' at 200th birthday display; Museum proud of explorer's rare specimen.Byline: BY RICHARD DOWN Daily Post Staff ONE of the exotic creatures collected by Charles Darwin on his legendary voyage onboard the Beagle is now the centrepiece of a Liverpool museum display marking his 200th birthday. Darwin collected the Ovenbird ovenbird, common name for a member of the family Furnariidae, primitive passerine birds, which build elaborate, domed nests of clay or dig tunnels in the ground to lay their eggs. , in 1834, as the Beagle explored Wolsey Sound in the Straits of Magellan, at the southern tip of South America South America, fourth largest continent (1991 est. pop. 299,150,000), c.6,880,000 sq mi (17,819,000 sq km), the southern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. . The bird is formally known as a dark-bellied cinclodes or cinclodes patagonica and has been in the World Museum Liverpool's renowned collections since 1896. It even has a handwritten hand·write tr.v. hand·wrote , hand·writ·ten , hand·writ·ing, hand·writes To write by hand. [Back-formation from handwritten.] Adj. 1. label penned by Darwin noting that the bird's stomach was full of shellfish and remarking that the specimen was very common. Actor and in-house demonstrator Paul Nettlefield donned whiskers See metal whiskers. and Victorian garb to play the part of the revolutionary scientist as the museum geared up for the historic birthday. He said: "Just holding the bird that Darwin would have handled was a great honour for me as an actor and a member of this museum. "It's the only specimen that we have here. All of his specimens are important and helped him build a picture of South American and ultimately the theories he developed. "However, he wasn't very careful in the way he packed them away - that was just the way he was as a man." When the Beagle returned to Britain in 1836, after the epic five-year voyage around the world, 27-year-old Darwin became a celebrity. He had collected thousands of specimens of all kinds of creatures as well as fossils. Darwin's researches led him to his monumental and controversial theory of natural selection which was published as On the Origin of Species in 1859. Mr Nettlefield, who spent the day greeting people in the museum, said: "There have been one or two people that have mentioned the Creationism creationism or creation science, belief in the biblical account of the creation of the world as described in Genesis, a characteristic especially of fundamentalist Protestantism (see fundamentalism). point of view and everyone has their own opinion. "We're not here to question or attack religion, but rather to celebrate the scientific work and the huge numbers of discoveries that are a result of the work he pioneered." Darwin was born on February 12, 1809, at Shrewsbury. To mark the birthday next Thursday, February 12, the actor will premiere his performance as the older Darwin. Later in the year, a Darwin Trail will be unveiled and two new shows will be staged at the Treasure House Theatre, in June. richarddown@dailypost.co.uk CAPTION(S): Paul Nettlefield, dressed as Charles Darwin, with the Ovenbird, which Darwin himself collected in 1834 as the Beagle explored Wolsey Sound, in the Straits of Magellan Picture: ANDREW TEEBAY/ at040209bdarwin-3 |
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